"It's a double-edged sword being a new artist. You have all the freshness and you can bring something completely unseen to the forefront if you mange to get your stuff out. My suggestion is just to follow your heart and not try to be anybody else."

With Layne Staley's death, Alice In Chains was all but done. But fourteen years later, here we are with something that sounds a lot like what the group would have had they returned to the studio a couple years later.

The progressives and Blue Dogs are going to have a showdown. It is going to culminate not in statements to the press (or the lack thereof), not in some whispered whip count, but rather in a very public vote.

At the concert in Central Park Wednesday night, Ken Burns was inspiring -- and used words like "apotheosis" and "inexorable," just to see if we were paying attention -- and was his usual energetic, charming self.